Category: Politics

If there is one person who has transformed the political environment of Puerto Rico is none other than the legendary Francisco Domenech. Mr. Domenech is a political powerhouse not only in Puerto Rico but also in the United States. His political journey has not been that smooth. He has had his successes and failures. However, the roles he has played in the political platforms is incomparable and not many people can match his accomplishes.

Francisco Domenech honed his skills and gained experience over the years thanks to the many mandates he has successfully undertaken. His massive arrays of roles include campaigning, fundraising, mobilizing voter registration, policy development, opposition research as well as campaign strategies and management. Mr. Domenech’s legal and political expertise has helped him perfect his skills and position himself as a force to reckon with in political setups. Read this article at washingtonpost.com

The political portfolio of Francisco Domenech is quite prevalent. He has worked as Chief Legal Counsel of Kenneth McClintock, the Puerto Rico Senate President. During his stint as the senate’s counsel, Domenech duties included providing the appropriate legal advice. He also represented the interests of the Senate in courts, supervised his subordinates such as federal lobbyists and lawyers as well as oversaw in-house counsel undertakings.

One of his widely acknowledged roles is being part of the team that spearheaded Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaigns and related events. Francisco Domenech played a great role in convincing supporters that Hillary was the best candidate for the top position. He also demonstrated his extraordinary competence in politics by also campaigning for Jennifer Gonzalez-Colon. Jennifer was vying for the Resident Commissioner Seat in Congress, the first woman to contest for the seat.

Besides his expertise in legal affairs and politics, Domenech holds great interpersonal skills. He has an up-close understanding of the people of Puerto Rico and surrounding regions and he has been able to build good relationships over the years. Francisco Domenech’s work ethic and multitasking capabilities have propelled him above many other legal and political experts in the world. In fact, he is an inspiration among many aspiring law experts and political scientists. Many aspiring candidates have also sought his advice in fulfilling their political endeavors.

This election cycle is concerning many Republicans due to a fear of the Democratic party winning seats in areas that traditionally belong to conservatives. In a time where people are becoming increasingly disappointed in the state that politics are in, grassroots campaigns of charismatic candidates are catching the attention of people who traditionally only voted down their party’s line.

According to a poll from End Citizens United, Democratic candidate Beto O’Rourke is quickly closing in on Republican candidate Ted Cruz. While the Democrats taking the traditionally Republican occupied Senate seat may not be one of the main priorities during this election cycle, it would certainly add some momentum to the Democrats’ election cycle according to End Citizens United.

End Citizens United was founded in early 2015 to try to fight the large influence that money has been having on politics. While Ted Cruz’s campaign had claimed that the Texas Senator was leading in the polls by around 18%, End Citizens United’s data showed that this margin may actually be as small by 14%. To those not aware of the long-standing political climate in Texas may not see this as a big deal, a Democrat being in the Senate seat of Texas would certainly raise some concerns to Republicans. Read more about End Citizens United at Wikipedia.

The poll by End Citizens United is not the only one that is showing that the margin between candidates Ted Cruz and Beto O’Rourke are closing. When the University of Texas released the results of their own poll in June, it showed that there were only 5 points between the 2. There are multiple reasons why voters are turning away from Ted Cruz, and one of the largest may be himself.

While many residents of Texas don’t know much about Beto O’Rourke’s views, they do know that they are not happy with current Senator Ted Cruz’s actions in office. He is seen by many as putting his own interests before those of the people in his political career. Almost half of those polled, 49%, stated that they did not view his time in office favorably while only 38% approved of him as Senator. Learn more: http://www.politifact.com/personalities/end-citizens-united/

Francisco Domenech is a Puerto Rican who has been involved in government affairs for many years. He is the managing partner of Politank which is a bipartisan government affairs law firm headquartered in the capital of Puerto Rico, San Juan. His firm’s goal is to help their clients navigate challenges when it comes to public policy and help them discover opportunities when a public policy affects their business.

Before arriving at Politank Francisco Domenech was Director of the Office of Legislative Services from 2005 to 2008 in the Puerto Rico Legislative Assembly. During this time he made the staff more efficient by reducing it to 130 employees while at the same time expanding the Legislative Library so that blind and physically handicapped people could make use of it. He also provided his opinion on more than 800 pieces of legislation during his time in this position.

He is a graduate of the University of Puerto Rico with a bachelor’s degree in political science and a law degree earned at their School of Law. He earned his bachelors in 1999 and his law degree in 2003. During the 1999-2000 academic year he showed early leadership potential when he served as the President of the General Student Body Council. When he was studying for his law degree Francisco Domenech he participated in both 2002 and 2003 in the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition’s international rounds where he finished in the top 15%. Learn more about Francisco Domenech at Caribbean Business.

From 2007 to 2012 he was a member of the Democratic National Committee. He served during this time as a representative of the Young Democrats of America. He has now been a Puerto Rican delegate sent to the last four Democratic National Conventions. He served as Hillary Clinton’s Puerto Rican Deputy Campaign Manager in 2008 and did so again in her 2016 presidential run.

Founded in 2015, End Citizens United was initially seen as a PAC developed for a single purpose but is now showing itself to be a group with its eye on developing a powerful stranglehold on the need to protect the election finance regulations at all levels. Operating as a traditional PAC, which means the group limits donations to just $5,000 allows the group to endorse candidates such as Hillary Clinton without the need to kowtow to the influence of wealthy donors; the work of End Citizens United continues as the 2018 Midterm Elections draw closer with the aim of the PAC being to bring election finance reform-friendly Democrats into Congress.

One area of great importance to End Citizens United in 2017 is the consistent threat being made by Republican lawmakers to one of the least controversial pieces of election finance regulations introduced in the 20th-century. The Johnson Amendment provides a clear separation between Church, charitable bodies, and the state in the form of a ban on tax-exempt group providing funding for candidates in elections; introduced to Congress by Lyndon Johnson before he became President of the U.S. the bill passed largely without opposition. Any tax-exempt group found to have provided funding for political candidates or parties risks losing their tax status following an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service.

End Citizens United have been monitoring the attacks on the Johnson Amendment for a number of months dating back to the arrival of President Donald Trump during the 2016 Presidential election cycle. As a candidate, President Trump vowed to overturn the Johnson Amendment but has yet to bring any legislation to Congress; knowing the amendment is one of the least controversial in the U.S. the President has since signed an Executive Order calling on the IRS not to prosecute Church groups found to have flaunted the Johnson Amendment.

As the fight to protect the Johnson Amendment continues the problem of continued attacks by conservative politicians has been highlighted by End Citizens United President, Tiffany Muller. The recently introduced tax reform bill of 2017 has included within its many pages a clause exempting religious groups from the Johnson Amendment which would cause major problems for many political groups over the course of the coming years. End Citizens United has made many attempts to fight for the financial election reforms which the PAC hopes to use to stem the tide of continuing attacks on the rights of political groups to remain free from the undue political influence of major financial donors.

The attempts of the Republicans to dilute the Johnson Amendment is the latest threat to the election process of the country. The Amendment that successfully kept the church money out of politics until recently is going to get a drastic makeover in the coming days. The move is expected to create widespread consequences into the political system of the country. The executive order issued by President Trump leads to rolling back the taxation of the church funding to political campaigns. End Citizens United, the prominent PAC against money groups, has communicated that it would create options for large money groups to channel their political contributions to churches for taking the tax benefit.

ECU has taken a stand against the move and said that it would fight for protecting the Amendment. It asked the legislatures and the executive to abandon the repeal efforts for Johnson Amendment. The PAC warned that it would create massive rigging to the election processing and finance system. It also continued that people of America are increasingly worried about what happens to the administration, especially after the Russian intervention in the elections and ongoing investigations. The Citizens United order against FEC in 2010 from the Supreme Court has made a clear damage to the election finance system and gave superior voice to large money groups and corporations. To counter the effects, ECU was formed in 2015 to protect the soul of the democracy and the American elections.

Since its formation, ECU started working to overturn the Citizen United verdict through meaningful legislation process. The Citizen United verdict previously gave corporations to access the political campaigning process, and now, the organizations like churches can make greater say through political funding. ECU has come out with some statistics that can be a clear signal to where the future is evolving. The 2016 Presidential election cost was approximately $6.5 billion, whereas people contributed as many as $119 billion to various religious organizations in 2015. When people contribute to churches by thinking it could be used for its development purposes, it might get diverted to the election campaigns, in addition to channeling through churches by money groups.

We need more of this from the @FEC to prevent bad actors from undermining our right to know the special interests influencing our elections. https://t.co/tnNLm5PEyX

The situation of buying elections by large money groups are quite alarming, and the new move would further extend it. ECU is planning to send maximum pro-reform champions to the houses of the legislature to introduce and pass an amendment that can ensure structured and accurate election system. The PAC believes that it is the only way to protect the constitutional buildings of the country. ECU campaigns for the representatives who are standing against the big money donors and work towards election finance reform. The PAC also runs social media and individual grass root level campaigns to take its vision reaching people. Read more: http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/end-citizens-united-pac-wants-make-its-name-reality

In an article released by End Citizens United, it’s been revealed that a special interest group is giving $2 million to House Republicans who voted in May 2017 to remove health care from millions of US citizens. This money is being given to 21 Republicans that voted for the Obamacare repeal bill that will result about 24 million people losing their coverage that they have on ACA exchanges.

Among the other changes the bill includes is vastly increasing the cost of health care for everyone over the age of 50 as it includes an age tax. The bill also allows insurers to deny coverage to those with pre-existing conditions such as cancer, high blood pressure, cancer, and pregnancy. The group giving money to these Republicans is the American Action Network which is an organization that refuses to reveal who is providing funding for it.

End Citizens United is a political action committee (PAC) that was founded in the wake of the US Supreme Courts decision that resulted in the political system being taken over by deep-pocketed corporations and wealthy individuals who know hold outsized power over the political process. This organization is dedicated to backing politicians who seek campaign finance reform that will roll back some of the consequences of the Supreme Court ruling and ultimately they hope to pass a constitutional amendment limiting what people can give to political campaigns.

In the first three months of 2017, End Citizens United was able to collect over $4 million in contributions from small donors. They are now expecting they will raise over $35 million before the 2018 midterm elections which will greatly outpace the $25 million they had contributed to them for the 2016 presidential elections.

The $4 million that End Citizens United has taken in so far was given by around 100,000 people each contributing an average of $12. The Executive Director and President of End Citizens United, Tiffany Miller, said that around 40,000 of those people had contributed to the PAC for the first time. Comments she has received from contributors indicate an overwhelming sentiment that the entire system is rigged against them by wealthy people and corporations. They are also very angry about Donald Trump winning the presidency and want to do their part to fight back against his agenda as well as that of Republicans in the House and Senate.

One of the beneficiaries of End Citizens United’s efforts is Jon Ossoff of Georgia, a Democratic candidate who is running in a heavily Republican area and for whom they want to raise $500,000. He has been remarkably successful in his campaign to win the seat that was left by Tom Price who took on the role of Health and Human Services.

The biography of George Soros brings out a man who has come face to face with a real struggle. Born in Hungary, the 87-year-old lived at a time when the Nazis occupied Budapest. He saw the struggles his father went through trying to save the entire family. They would later escape to London where George Soros put himself through the London School of Economics while working as a railway porter and a waiter. When he finished his college education, George started working in the finance department of a merchant Bank. Later on, he relocated to New York, began working on Wall Street and in 1969, he formed a hedge fund worth $12 million which was later rebranded to Quantum Fund. Several decades later, George Soros is still a heavyweight investor through the Soros Fund Management, and his family office has assets worth more than $30 billion. This year, Soros appointed one of the most prominent women in Wall Street, Dawn Fitzpatrick, to serve as the CIO of SFM. Dawn comes in as the 7th chief investment officer of SFM since 2000. George’s real time net worth is $25.2 billion, according to Forbes.

Irrespective of his age, the fierce critic of the US president Donald J. Trump is still on the forefront of the ideological struggles that characterize the world’s politics. He began this struggle a long time ago and even founded the Open Society Foundation in 1984. Among the earliest initiatives of the foundation was to supply copy machines to the Universities, civil society groups and libraries in his native (at the time a Soviet-dominated Hungary) to help them reprint banned publications. When the Berlin Wall fell, George Soros extended his advisory services to help them enjoy a smooth transition to free markets and democracy. His foundation collaborated with the local politicians and the dissidents – the majority of which played significant roles in the key events during the histories of their countries. Read more on NYTimes.com.

Today, George Soros funds the activities of the Democratic Party, and several causes such as Black Lives Matters. George Soros showed open opposition to the Donald Trump’s presidency and even funded Hillary Clinton’s campaigns last year. He uses the various networks of Open Society Foundations (located in over 100 countries) to push for his agendas that touch on justice and social concerns. While he is seen as a hero on one side, the world dictators do not tend to express anything positive thing about George Soros. Nevertheless, he is never cowed by such sentiments. In September 2016, George Soros gave out $500 million to help in financing the businesses established and managed by migrants, the refugees, and the host communities, according to Politico. George believes in a world where the political leaders allow democracy to prevail, and governments are accountable to their citizens.

After 2004, everyone knew that George Soros was never going to be active in matters of national politics. Since then, George Soros has insignificantly made monetary contributions to political parties, or individuals. Before 2008, he teamed together with other investors to form the Democratic Alliance, a movement that worked to make donations to support the Democratic presidential candidate, who was then Barrack Obama. This was the closest Soros ever came to being involved in politics. He, however confessed that he regretted backing Obama, and that he should have supported Hillary Clinton in the party’s primaries on Forbes.

Soros’, in 2016, seems to have changed his mind about not getting involved in politics. As a matter of fact, he seems enthusiastic about it, more that ever before. Compared to 2004, when George Soros spent a whopping $27 million to try and defeat Bush, the billionaire has already contributed $25 million to Clinton’s campaign. With the elections fast approaching, the spending is expected to increase, as indicated by sources close to the billionaire.

His reemergence, though unexpected, is certainly explainable. Soros regretted not supporting Clinton in 2008. This may have been his motivation on opensocietyfoundations.org. Secondly, Clinton and Soros have been close allies for over 20 years. Furthermore, Clinton’s principles seem to be in line with what Soros stands for. What makes it worse for Donald Trump, the Republican’s preferred presidential candidate, is that Soros has never liked his ideologies.

To show his solemn support for Clinton’s candidature, George Soros was to attend the Democratic convention, something he had never done before. It was at the convention that Clinton was to accept her nomination as the party’s flag bearer. Soros, however, failed to turn up. A close associate of his says that, this was so because his boss had to run things in Europe. It seems like the billionaire has recently gone back to active trading. Despite all this, Soros’ support for Clinton will definitely be a huge problem for Trump’s team at http://time.com/4581137/george-soros-donald-trump-hate-crime-minorities-election/.